Laje, who is from Argentina, has freelanced for CNN en Español since 2007. He has also worked for CNN.com and CNN International in English.

“China is the first or second trading partner and major investor in most Latin American economies,” said Laje.

“Nevertheless, coverage has been scarce and no Spanish language outlet from the Americas had decided to have permanent coverage of this part of the world until now.”

This summer, CNN decided to formalise the relationship and start this new project.

“It’s too early to say too much, for the time being we’re executing the first stage of our plan,” said Laje.

“But keep in mind this has never been done before, we’re the first in this language to have full coverage of China and the rest of Asia Pacific, so duties are very large.”

The media environment here is open which makes work easy and efficient, he said.
“CNN has a major broadcasting centre and that is another key element; and we take an unmanned timezone — the closest CNN en Español offices are in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.”

Laje credited the JMSC with helping him to get where he is today.

“The JMSC was the key to getting here. Simply said, had I not been to the JMSC I would have never made it. The atmosphere where I could learn and experiment with my TV skills while receiving feedback from some of the most talented professionals in this field, like Jim Laurie, Nancy Tong and Rob McBride was a major leap.”